Which lower and upper combination for dedicated .22 AR

[canyon289]

I'm in the market for a .22 AR but am lost in a sea of choices. I'm open to building my own, my only hard requirement is a standard lower so I can swap the .22lr upper with a .223/5.56 at a future date.

I also would like to use a dedicated .22lr upper since I will be shooting .22 rounds much more frequently than anything else. I don't have the option of clearing the gas tube using 5.56 rounds at my local gun range.

I don't have a ton of money but want to buy quality parts. What do you guys suggest? Anyone who's done this have comments?

[ejhc11]

Palmetto lowers or similar will do fine. Their lpks are also very good. Its what I used for my centerfire and rimfire ARs.

Contact Calgunner: Shadow65
He'll set you up w/a CMMG rimfire upper. Dave's the top guy for rimfire CMMG uppers here at Calguns.

I love mine so much I got an Eotech 517 for it.

http://i915.photobucket.com/albums/ac352/ejhc11/AR15/ARRFM4.jpg

[uxo2]

Finished 80%..or one ofthose plasctic lowers

[wiki wiki]

+1 for contacting Shadow65 on a CMMG upper, it's one heck of a deal.

I used a old Kaiser Defense lower along with a CMMG M4 anodized upper along with the stainless steel bolt and collar, and forward assist. Functioning has been flawless, and the accuracy has been as good or better than any of the other .22s semi-auto rifles I'ved owned. Easy to clean and no problems or part breakage with approximately 3k downrange. I was using a BCM 16" upper on the K-D lower until I built an additional lower, mainly because I didn't want to use a bullet button when I was using the .22 upper.
Any good quality lower will work, basically it comes down to what roll mark you like or how much you want to spend. Be sure to use a hammer without a notch in it. The upper cost me $400 with the upgrades, the K-D lower with a Palmetto LPK and CTR stock kit came to about $250.

[pennys dad]

Agreed with wiki wiki, I used a 2 calguns lowers from KD with cmmg lpk's.
topped it off with CMMG 22lr service rifle upper and a weaver scope.

[Jet Setter]

LW-15 & Chiappa Upper

I have a NFA LW-15 lower with a Chiappa M4-22 upper. Much like you, I wanted a good, light, lower with a dedicated .22 upper that I can switch out for a 5.56 later. I love my set up. It shoots well and no problems at all (after a small problem withg upper bolt failing). If you shop around, you can get the same lower for $145 OTD and the Chiappa upper for about $350.

Worth looking into - specially the lower.

[The War Wagon]

TacSol .22 upper and Precision-Aero lower been veddy, veddy good to me.




Yeah, I added a few goodies, too.

[bonesurf]

I use a lw15 and a taccom3g upper

[Stardude82]

CMMG sells complete 22lr AR outfits. It's worth taking a look at those.

[2nab]

Nordic NC-22 upper

Almost any lower you want, + pay a little for a worthwhile trigger



Above is 18" NC-22 upper on S&W M+P15 lower

[canyon289]

Nordic NC-22 upper

Almost any lower you want, + pay a little for a worthwhile trigger



Above is 18" NC-22 upper on S&W M+P15 lower

I thought the SW MP lowers were non standard lowers. Is that only true of the SW MP 22?

[AR22]

When we assembled my kids AR22 we used a Aero Precision lower we bought locally. DO NOT even think of using a Plastic Lower and definitley do not buy anything Chiappa related. NO NO NO

Any lower, as long as it is not Plastic will serve you well.

After assembling the lower we bought a completed CMMG upper with Stainless Bolt assembly, Definitley get the Stainless if you can. His runs 100% of the time perfectly and that is saying alot for a rimfire. CMMGs are the best option in my opinion both from a dependability standpoint and the price point. Plus it uses a real AR upper reciever and if you want it to, it can mimick the big brother in function with options available like Last round bolt hold open and Foward assist if you want it to have all the real function of a 5.56 one.. Really nice and CMMG is a great Company that if you do have a problem they will take care of you very fast..

[canyon289]

Thanks for all the advice!

I will be buying a CMMG 16 inch upper with the FSB. The only thing I have a question about now is what's the difference between the M4 and LW hand guard and which do you recommend?

I also will be getting the Frontier Arms lower for my first lower. It's cheap and I don't mind banging it around when I'm learning how to take apart the lower. As I build up my arsenal I'll likely get an aluminum lower

As for optics I'll either get the carry handle or a scope. We'll see once I have the firearm put together.

[AR22]

I personally would not get the FSB model. I think they are pinned on and while not a big deal to remove we went with the model with the gasblock so you can mount whatever sight you want and the block is just setscrew clamped so it make modifications very easy if you want to change Handguards to a freefloat or a longer length handguard.

The FSB type are just not as easily open to modifications and if you are anything like me the handguards will quickly get changed. If you are certain you always want a FSB and that length of handguards it will be no problem but I bet you will want to change stuff for appearance..

We just removed the whole handguard setup and run a scope with a rifle length free float handguard and can also take the scope off and put on any other open sight combo we wish to.

[canyon289]

If this is the case I'll get a rail gas block and just buy a removable front sight instead. Thanks for informing me of this, I had no idea!